Surnames Origin & Last Name Meanings

There are two possible sources of this Anglo-Saxon name. Firstly, it could be a dialectal variant locational surname from any one of the numerous places called Hardwick, in, for example, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Worcestershire and Yorkshire. The derivation is from the Old English pre 7th Century `heorde`, meaning herd or flock, with `wic` meaning an outlying farm or settlement. Alternatively, it is possible that it is a topographical surname for a person who lived on an outlying farm surrounded by heather on a moor for instance, if this name takes its meaning from the Old English `haep`, heather and the second element `wic`, (as above). One Susanna Hadwick married John Guest at Ferry Fryston, Yorkshire on November 22nd 1767, and in Upton-on-Severn, Worcestershire one George Hadwick, the infant son of Edmund and Mary Hadwick, was christened on June 17th 1770. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Anketill de Herdewic, witness, which was dated 1221, The Warwickshire Assize Rolls, during the reign of King Henry III, `The Frenchman`, 1216 - 1272. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to `develop` often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.